Riad Salameh in 2021. AFPShow caption: Riad Salameh in 2021. AFPHe was transferred from a hospital to the overcrowded jailThe Salameh Papers: Special report into allegations against former Lebanon banking chiefLebanon's controversial former Central Bank (BDL) governor Riad Salameh, who was arrested recently over alleged financial wrongdoing, has been moved from hospital to Roumieh prison, overlooking Beirut. He was arrested on Friday at Bhannes Hospital, north of the Lebanese capital, after failing to appear before a judge for questioning the previous day. Mr Salameh had been summoned for questioning on Thursday by Samaranda Nassar of the Court of Cassation. The questioning concerned a complaint filed by the current governor of Lebanon's central bank, Karim Souaid.“He's in Roumieh prison,” a judicial source said on Monday morning. “Concerning his health conditions, the examining doctor deemed it was not serious enough for him to stay at the hospital; that's why he was moved to Roumieh. It's only a matter of blood pressure, that's it,” they added.Mr Salameh was indicted in July last year and released on $20 million bail. His family has also issued a statement through their lawyers saying that the 76-year-old needs to be kept “under intensive medical supervision” and that his health status is unstable. They also said that Mr Salameh had complied with the judicial investigation into him, and that not keeping him under constant medical supervision harms the investigation itself. Roumieh is Lebanon's largest prison and overlooks Beirut from its eastern suburbs. Rights groups have regularly criticised the overcrowded and squalid conditions there. For three decades, Mr Salameh was one of the country’s most influential people and had even been touted as a potential presidential candidate. However, his arrest in September 2024 on charges of embezzling public funds, forgery, illicit enrichment and money laundering revealed a new side to a man who was once lauded as the guardian of the country's financial sector.He has become a figure of ridicule in Lebanon following a 2019 economic crisis, the effects of which still reverberate today. That crisis was blamed on decades of financial mismanagement and corruption among the Lebanese elite, including Mr Salameh. The crisis saw the local currency plummet in value on the parallel dollar market by more than 95 per cent, while informal capital controls implemented by the banks meant vast numbers of depositors were locked out of their savings – a situation that continues today.Updated: August 03, 2026, 11:28 AM